Domesticating the man

A conversation last night:

C: "Now that I'm doing a bit more cooking, I'm starting to appreciate some of your gadgets that I thought were useless before."

V: "I'm intrigued."

"Like that thing that sits next to the cooker.  That you put spoons on.  That's great.  What's it called?"

"The spoon-rest."

"Ah."

Clearly magical

Other people get me out of bed

I have spent the last month sorting out our mountains of paper clutter, fifteen minutes a day.  Today is the 20th of the month and I have now, finally, tamed the mountains of paper.  So... we had about five hours worth of paper clutter around the house. *shudder*

One of the gems I came across were some old Myers-Briggs personality tests.  I have always come back ENTJ - the "E" of which one of my friends questioned.  "Really?" she said.  And I shrugged.  Because it really depends on my mood whether I'm going to be the life of the party or hiding in the kitchen.

One place that I am definitely an "E" - getting my energy through social interaction - is running.  C can go off for hours at a time by himself and come back glowing (though he is currently claiming to be the strongest E ever on the planet - yes, we got distracted by Wikipedia...).  I find that a run with company seems to pass in mere moments, while a solitary run is... longer.

Every Saturday, I wake up thinking that I could just stay in bed.  And every Saturday, I see that I have left my running kit out and so, of course, I have to put it on.  And having donned my stretchy, breathable spandex, I have to eat a healthy, appropriate-to-running breakfast.  And having eaten my porridge with a bit of fruit, I then have to get in the car and go to Sevenoaks.  And then, before I even know what has happened, I am hitting the coffee shop glowing (or something less glamorous than glowing... trust me) with fresh air and exercise.  It's the reminder of my post-run high that gets me to set out my trainers on a Friday night, since I don't want to miss out.

The next step is getting out this Wednesday night - clearly the morning momentum isn't going to get me out in the evening, but I'll just try to recapture the memory of my post-run bliss and see if it can get me out the door on a dark and stormy night.

Run in the sun

Today was an important run.

It's my birthday today and I totally had the excuses ready to stay in bed.  We went out last night and I had two G&Ts.  I have been nursing a minor cold all week.  Itsyboo has been sleeping badly and I'm exhausted.  It rained so much last night that it was probably going to be a complete mud-fest.  I didn't eat breakfast until a hour before I was supposed to run, instead of my preferred two hours.

You get the picture.

But I dragged myself out and turned up, ready for an awful run, where I felt exhausted and tired and grim.  But as I started the pre-run chats with the lovely women of SLJ, my mood lightened a little bit.

By the end of the run - which I just took slow and steady, giving myself permission to at least do a "comfortable run" on my birthday, I felt magical.  I was so glad I went, the sun was shining, the air was fresh, there was a fun amount of mud.  I stopped for a coffee afterwards instead of going straight to Miss A's football, which was delightful.

So it was good, I did it even when it didn't feel "right" and the half-marathon in February feels that little bit more achievable.  My favourite present to myself so far!